


The Unbearable Heaviness of Understanding

by IsileeGilbert



Series: Keeping Up with the Blacks [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Child Marriage, F/M, implied rape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:22:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24001282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IsileeGilbert/pseuds/IsileeGilbert
Summary: In which Cygnus comes to a horrifying realisation. Drabble!
Relationships: Cygnus Black/Druella Rosier Black
Series: Keeping Up with the Blacks [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1730866
Kudos: 3





	The Unbearable Heaviness of Understanding

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Is it bad that I always want more of this messed-up family? It's another round of Keeping Up with the Blacks, except I never own this world!
> 
> Warnings: child marriage, implied rape

[Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Daily Prophet issue 5 the Most Ancient and Noble House of Drabbles competition]

Prompt: Any character from the Black family (except Sirius, Regulus, Andromeda, Narcissa, Bellatrix)

* * *

**The Unbearable Heaviness of Understanding**

Delicate little glass spheres, each containing its own fairy, floated gently about the garden. With an occasional whirl, the fairies were shaken, causing them to stir and glow brighter. A species of Flutterby and rose bush hybrid specifically cultivated for this event dotted about the garden, and their deep red roses fluttered invitingly toward the guests.

Cygnus stared glumly across the Grimmauld Square garden, eyes fixated on his newly-wedded wife socialising demurely with the other ladies. She was extraordinarily pretty, without a doubt, and of a gentle sort; he was sure his suave cousin Orion would have gotten to her, if not for the already signed betrothal between them. Her sweet heart-shaped face, high cheekbones, heavy-lidded eyes, and delicately arched brows all spoke volumes of her fine and aristocratic lineage. Dressed in pure white robes embroidered with pearls and shimmering thread, her blond hair shone in the sunlight, and she was a vision to behold. Any man would be happy to have her as his wife. He would have been happy to have her as his wife.

He _should_ have been happy to have her as his wife.

His eyes slid down to her slim belly. At precisely ten o'clock just an hour earlier, they had been handfasted and joined in matrimony under the Spring Equinox sky. Even though she was five years older than he — a mere thirteen year old; still in Hogwarts, no less! — Cygnus had known Druella since they were but toddlers at Yule parties. He had always been content with the knowledge of marrying her someday, but now he was not so sure. The ceremony that had been chosen had united husband and wife together in both body and mind, and as the patriarch of their newfound family, he was suddenly all too aware that there were three individuals in their familial bond. Cygnus had just barely managed to retain his composure for the rest of the handfasting ceremony, and had immediately broken away to grab a Butterbeer as soon as it was done.

A child! How could that be? Cygnus watched as his parents approached their new daughter-in-law, his slate grey eyes narrowing as his father surreptitiously slid a hand over the back of her waist, just a touch lower than polite society dictated, and with a familiarity that made his new wife squirm away as discreetly as she could. Cygnus' young mind quivered with the awful understanding of what had happened. He swallowed the lump in his throat with some difficulty.

Yet he could do nothing, and he clutched at the goblet in his hand as if it were his only lifeline.

In the middle of November, their family's long-eared owl Otus had landed imperiously in front of his breakfast porridge in the Great Hall. Cygnus' hands had shaken with trepidation as he slowly untied the heavy vellum, and only his brother Alphard had heard his quiet gasp after seeing its contents.

When the year drew to a close, he arrived home for Christmas break and his father — no, Pollux — came to greet him with a wide lecherous grin. The swaddle of cloth in Pollux' arms had writhed and fell away to reveal a tiny baby with wild and curly black hair that ran in the Black family, and heavy-lidded eyes just like Druella's.

''Tis your daughter, boy! You are to name her Bellatrix in accordance with the Black naming traditions.'

Even as Cygnus began to shake his head in denial, the baby was shoved into his unwilling arms. He held her stiffly, and peered miserably into her face as she shook her little fists at him as angrily as a baby could. He choked down the bile that rose in his throat. He was but thirteen! What could he do? There was no way this baby was his; he had not touched his wife in any way, but he knew with all certainty that his prolificacy would be celebrated in high society circles regardless.

In all his helplessness, he turned toward Druella, who had been lurking in the doorway behind Pollux for some time. Cygnus saw her withdrawn face, the ghostly pallor, the pain and shame in her eyes. His heart reached out to her, and its burden was an understanding with a weight the same as the little stranger he held in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Words: 729
> 
> A/N: OOF that was darker than I expected. JKR can say she's bad at math for all I care, but that mistake in Bellatrix's birthdate made for some really good Black story on the side.


End file.
